Ringside View | Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Needs To Be Told Cricket Is Not A Contact Sport

Dealing with prodigies is always a tricky affair. The younger they are, the easier it becomes to excuse things. A bad reaction gets called passion-using intense emotion to excuse poor communication or toxic actions. Poor behaviour gets passed off as immaturity. And when the talent is as obvious as Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, people often look away because the runs and the sixes just begin to feel bigger than everything else. But there is a danger of looking away. At 15, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is moving through cricket at 10x speed, that very few have experienced.

He has taken apart international bowlers in the IPL, won an Under-19 World Cup, and will soon be launched by India as the most dazzling, aspirational product in the market, as early as the Ireland tour.

Which is why what happened in Dambulla on Monday cannot be shrugged off.

It was a tied game between India A and Sri Lanka A, the kind that leaves everybody drained. There was confusion over light, uncertainty over whether the Super Over would even happen, and then Sri Lanka A held their nerve to win it. Make no mistake that even during the game there were skirmishes between India A and Sri Lanka A players.

After losing a game, frustration was natural. But what came next wasn't.

The cameras caught Sooryavanshi in an argument with Sri Lankan players once the game was done. Even while walking away, he kept turning back. Kept engaging. Kept pulling himself back into it. Then came the physical contact.

I am not sure how much contact sports Sooryavanshi watches. But cricket isn't rugby. It isn't boxing. You can play hard, you can get in each other's faces, you can let the adrenaline spill over a little. But once the match is over, it is over. There is a fine word that the game has given us 'controlled aggression.'

And this wasn't even the first time.

In the Under-19 Asia Cup final against Pakistan, there was that needless "dust off my shoe" gesture after his dismissal. It felt immature then, copping criticisms from the opponent coach. Combined with what happened in Sri Lanka, it has begun to feel less like a one-off and more like a trait that the teenager has.

Such traits, if left alone, become habits.

I do not know Sooryavanshi too well to analyse his attitude, but his Dad reportedly has said that, like any youngster of his age, he struggles to process impulses, resulting in outbursts or aggression.

To channelise it, and channelise it well, is the real issue.

Because when a kid is this talented, the people around him often become part of the problem. Everyone tells him how gifted he is. Everyone reminds him how special he is. Very few tell him when he is crossing the line.

Every youngstar needs that voice before a cheerleader.

Indian sport has seen enough examples of what happens when talent outruns discipline.

Prithvi Shaw was once spoken about in the same breath as Sachin Tendulkar. The bat speed, the confidence, the records at a young age-it all felt like the beginning of something huge.

And maybe it still could be. But somewhere the road bent.

Not because his ability disappeared. That was never the issue. It was everything around it. The habits, the distractions, the inability to keep the game at the centre.

Talent is fragile that way.

It can disappear in plain sight.

That's why the comparisons between Sooryavanshi and Sachin need to end now.

Not because Sooryavanshi lacks ability.

But because comparing every gifted teenager to Tendulkar helps nobody. It puts a weight on the kid and creates a false script for his career.

He is his own player. His own temperament. His own flaws. His own road.

Look at Deepika Kumari. Few Indian athletes have had her natural ability. Former world No.1, absurdly gifted archer, almost effortless in the way she could shoot.

And yet, no Olympic medal.

Her reactions after a shock exit in the London Olympics were severely criticised by the media and most people around her. Dipika simply did not have the right kind of support or knowledge to carry herself in 2012. The three key things missing in her arsenal were-Calm, Clarity and Control.

At the highest level the margins are mental.

Manu Bhaker, the double Olympic medallist from the Paris Games of 2024, was raw too.

At 15, there was a streak of defiance about her. She was sharp, restless, and impatient. Even in conversations, you could see it. The talent was never in question. The challenge was shaping it.

In her initial years, yours truly did not appreciate Manu the person, even while acknowledging Manu the shooter was special. Manu may or may not remember that once, during an interview, she had told me that the questions and the answers need to be hers, because she does not trust a journalist. She was 14 or 15 back then!

But that has changed. A lot of it has to do with Jaspal Rana.

In fact, the super coach who is no more told in an interview to NDTV after the Olympic feat of his ward that he did not need to coach her on how to shoot. He helped settle the person. Grounded her. Helped her understand that medals mean more when the person winning them carries herself the right way. He used Bhagvad Gita as the tool for Manu's transformation.

Manu became not just a champion. She became somebody younger athletes could look at and learn from, a true role model.

That's what Sooryavanshi needs too.

At the moment, he needs someone to pull him aside and tell him that being extraordinary with the bat does not excuse being reckless without it.

And make no mistake, he is extraordinary.

At 15, he already looks like he belongs in rooms far above his age. That doesn't happen by accident. The bat swing, the confidence, the willingness to take on bowlers older and more experienced-that's rare. And the first ball six that he has made is his trademark style.

BCCI cannot afford to waste this moment.

Players too often have lost their way by having an ego fed too early by a circle of people too impressed to correct him/her.

An India debut could be around the corner. There will be bigger grounds, bigger crowds, TV cameras following him and bigger scrutiny.

Ask Virat Kohli the cost of fame. And he will tell you that to preserve your talent, you need to build yourself first.

Unlike a kid of his age who goes to school and is groomed by a headmaster or a school teacher, Vaibhav's education will happen on the field. With that, evolution needs to come too.

He needs mentors like Jaspal Rana to remind him of an uncle called Charles Darwin and his theory of survival of the fittest, also tell him how to be fit to play a game called cricket, and not rugby.

Sooryavanshi could be the most unique product rolled out by the Indian cricket system in years. He already has mass appeal and distinct value, he just needs to give social proof to convert sceptics into believers.

(Rica Roy is a Sports Editor and Anchor with NDTV)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author